


Falling Slowly

by cheapdate



Category: American Idol RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-12
Updated: 2010-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-06 05:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheapdate/pseuds/cheapdate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the ontd_ai Drabble Meme. Prompt: Kradam, Hospital, PG - PG-13, Current Tour. Adam is on his deathbed. Possibly resulting from a tragic accident on stage or a bus accident. Surrounded by his grieving family, Adam asks for one last moment alone with Kris because he has something he needs to say. While Kris is there holding his hand, Adam closes his eyes for the last time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Slowly

Kris’s hands were shaking, his fingers wrapped tightly around the long cool stems of a bouquet of roses. He wasn’t sure why he’d even bothered buying the damn flowers, but as he’d passed the hospital gift shop he’d panicked. He just wasn’t prepared.

Only, while staring at the refrigerated row of colorful arrangements, he’d realized he’d never be _really_ ready to face what waited on the third floor ICU ever and instead of prolonging time, he was wasting it. With that thought, he’d grabbed the first bouquet he could reach and rushed out. If nothing else, Leila would appreciate it.

The elevator ride was both the longest and shortest experience of his life, his stomach churning sickeningly with every passing floor. When the doors opened and he stepped out, he immediately recognized the Lamberts across the way. Neil was leaning against the glass outside of Adam’s room with his head clutched in his hands while Ebert gently patted his shoulder. Leila was in the room, hovering over the bed, obscuring Adam’s face from view.

Kris gripped the flowers tighter as he approached, willing his feet forward. As he got closer, Ebert noticed him. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. Instead, he simply nodded and offered a tired smile. Kris returned the gesture the best he could.

When he reached the wide doorway, his legs numb and trembling, he watched silently as Leila leaned forward to press a kiss on Adam’s face. Feeling uncomfortable viewing something so private, he cleared his throat and she turned slowly.

“Oh, honey. Thank you for coming.” Her eyes were angry red and puffy, but she bravely pulled her dry, cracked lips into a small smile.

Silently, they shared a look of fear and desperation and pain before she nodded and made to leave the room. As she passed, Kris arm shot out unexpectedly and his hand gripped her wrist.

“I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know what to do,” Kris whispered pleadingly, thrusting out the flowers towards her.

“You’re here, Sweetie. You’re already doing everything you can.” She took the flowers and gently pulled her wrist away, continuing out of the room with a sigh. Kris watched her go, his tongue feeling thick and foreign in his mouth.

“Are you just going to stand there or come over here and tell me how fabulous I look?”

Kris’s attention snapped forward to where Adam lay in the hospital bed, a white sheet tucked under his chin. Without thinking, his feet moved him closer until his knees met the edge of the mattress.

“Well, go on. Give it to me straight.”

Kris looked down into Adam’s smiling face. Most of his blue-streaked raven colored hair was obscured by a tight white bandage and his cheeks were slashed with shallow pink lacerations. His eyes were both swollen, soft and naked without the harsh accent of makeup, his chin covered in strawberry-blond stubble. His lips were a dull grey color, cracked and rough.

“You look-,” Kris scratched the back of his neck. “Honestly, you look like hell.”

Adam laughed softly, wincing when the force shook his chest. “Have I told you that you’re an ass, Kristopher Allen?”

“Once or twice,” Kris answered, his heart hammering despite their calm, easy banter. Without realizing, he slipped his hand under the crisp hospital sheet and found Adam’s, the skin to skin contact creating a buzz of electricity in the room.

They were silent for a moment, just looking at each other, examining the familiar and insignificant features of each other’s faces - the curve of a jaw, the crease of a forehead, the slope of a nose - committing them to memory.

“Are you afraid?”

Adam’s eyebrows crunched together and he sighed. “Not really.”

“I am,” Kris blurted out, immediately feeling selfish. His face burned hot as blood rushed to his cheeks, but the words kept flowing uncontrollably. “You can’t leave me. I can’t do this on my own. Everything I am, everything I have-. Adam, please-”

Gripping Kris’s fingers tighter under the cotton sheet, Adam grinned, his clear blue eyes suddenly glassy and shimmering. “You’ll be okay.”

Kris simply shook his head, his heart exploding into a million shattered fragments, piercing his lungs so that his breath came in painful shallow gulps. Again came silence, the two boys staring at each other, always from opposite worlds, always a universe away.

Adam opened his mouth then, Kris noticing his face had become more sagged and grey since he’d first arrived.

“Kris, I know this is corny, but- will you do something for me?”

“Anything.”

“Will you sing? For me?”

Kris swallowed hard, wetness pricking at the corners of his eyes and nodded at the unexpected request.

Adam smiled and settled back into the pillows, two silent tears rolling slowly down his cheek as he blinked. He didn’t bother brushing them away. Instead his lids fluttered closed as he traced tiny circles on Kris’s hand with his thumb.

Kris cleared his throat, his voice shaky and off-key. His chest was tight and his body shaking uncontrollably, but the lyrics came easily.

_“Take this sinking boat and point it home  
We've still got time  
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice  
You've made it now…”_

Before he even reached the second verse, Adam’s hand had stilled.


End file.
